Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Romance and Gun Oil

Dear John, my Prince,wrote it down and stopped on his way home from work and bought me some. He went to a sporting goods store. I understand that it isn't hard on the plastic bed machines - like my precious Passap E6000.

I wonder what he's up to, for Pete's sake. This weekend he fixed 3 sponge bars and cleaned two steamers. He's really working into my good graces!

I don't write about the Passap much, because lately I've been doing so many things on the Japanese machines, but I promised to demo my Passap sock at our upcoming Austin seminar. I needed to practice the sock and make sure I've got it sized just right for ordinary hand knitting sock yarn, and last night was my chance.

I put some of that Hoppe's Elite Gun Oil (Mary says buy only Elite, so as not to damage the plastic). It worked just great last night; my poor Passap has been neglected and was rather dry, but it's sliding quite nicely. Passap will always be a little harder push because of the strippers (gizmos that squash down the knitting as you go across, ensuring stitches knit through), but the gun oil is awesome.

My little project is cool, too. I haven't made Passap socks in years because I got into circular sock machines, but I used to, and Passap makes such an easy sock! The pushers (patterning pegs below the needles) make the short-rowing of the heel and toe quick, and the strippers shoving the knitting down eliminate almost all weight worries. Circular knitting is also breezy on the Passap, again, because of the strippers. Oh, and the Decker Comb (a super stitch holder) makes short work of holding and replacing stitches instead of using waste yarn.

Passap knitting requires a different mind set, since you have a ribber in the way all the time. You must have faith that nice knitting, which you can't see, if forming between the beds.

I'm excited about showing this to one friend in particular, who is a new Passap knitter. And, for the sock, the console is not needed, so she may enjoy doing some knitting sans computer.

1 comment:

I'm a fairly new machine knitter who has been tremendously by your videos. I just now found your blog and am so happy I did.

Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but I just heard of the Decker Comb and did some searches for what it does and how to use it. So far I have only seen referenced to Passap machines. I have a Brother K830 (with ribber), will this tool work for me? I am trying to easily transfer switches from a flat ribbed band so I can continue knitting in the round for a hat (then will seam up the band afterward). But I am finding the process of moving those stitches to knit in the round too cumbersome and time consuming. Any insight is much appreciated. And thank you, thank you, thank you, for your fabulous videos. I remember when I was a child my mother got a Brother Knitting machine -- with no English instructions. She never learned how to properly use it -- there was no You Tube in those days. I have such an advantage.

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About Me

I'm a lady CPA in Austin, Texas. My husband, John, and our son John write software, and our son Steven is at Texas A&M. I can be mailed at "diana_knits at sbcglobal dot net." I am an avid machine knitter and doing all I can to spread machine knitting joy.